In a new audio address, Al-Qaeda’s number two Ayman al-Zawahiri has fiercely criticised American president-elect Barack Obama for “being a servant to the white citizens of America”.

He named Barack Obama, together with America’s secretaries of state Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, a “house negro”, a pejorative term used in times of slavery in the U.S., when slaves were divided into “field negros” who did hard work in the fields and “house negros” – those, who served in slave-holder’s house as servants, etc.

Ayman al-Zawahiri was speaking in Arabic and the term he used could literally be translated as “house slaves”, though to make themselves clear al-Qaida also inserted English subtitles to the speech that uses “house negroes” as exact translation.

He contrasted Barack Obama with another famous black American, Malcolm X, a Muslim preacher, human rights activist and advocate of black Americans.

Ayman al-Zawahiri also commented on the announced plans of Obama’s future administration to re-group troops from Iraq to Afghanistan. He warned that such plans are doomed to inevitable failure as Afghani citizens would actively resist occupation troops.

“Be aware that the dogs of Afghanistan have found the flesh of your soldiers to be delicious, so send thousands after thousands to them,” he said.

The address, published on militant websites on Wednesday, plays over still pictures of Ayman al-Zawahiri himself, Malcolm X and Barack Obama pictured with members of the American Jewish community (the president-elect’s wife, Michelle Obama’s cousin is Rabbi Capers C. Funnye, spiritual leader of a mostly black synagogue on Chicago's South Side).

This message is the first reaction by a terrorist organization to Barack Obama’s electoral victory.